GLSEN’s Executive Director Eliza Byard says the research fills in a “critical missing piece of the picture” about the prevalence of anti-gay discrimination throughout a child’s educational career.

BYARD: We decided that we really needed to go in and figure out what exactly was happening and then use that research to design a resource to equip teachers to deal with it.

Among the findings are that nearly half of all students and teachers regularly hear the word ‘gay’ used negatively, like in the phrase “That’s so gay.” Also, about a quarter of all respondents say they hear students utter the words “fag” or “lesbo.” GLSEN notes that about 20 percent of student participants regularly hear their peers getting harassed for seeming gay or gender nonconformity.

About 1 in 10 students say they don’t always conform to traditional gender roles, which makes them more likely to feel unsafe at school and fall victim to bullying.

Meanwhile, less than 20 percent of students said they know anything about LGBT families, while less than 40 percent of teachers admit touching on the subject.

In fact, less than HALF of the adult respondents say they’re comfortable even talking about LGBT people in the classroom, though 80 percent say they’re fine addressing anti-gay discrimination.

In all, about a THIRD of all teachers say they’re personally engaged in creating a safe school environment for their students.

SLDN Legal Director David McKean tells OutQ News that the Defense Department released guidance shortly after ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal that provides a pathway for changing one’s service documents. He says his group is now working to get “as much information as possible” from discharged servicemembers to help them apply for the necessary upgrades.

McKEAN: With the toolkit, we hope to streamline some of that process, and we hope to get the word out to everybody who could be eligible that if you have things on your discharge paperwork that you don’t like and you don’t want there anymore, it’s the case now that we can have that changed for you or apply to have that changed for you.

Among the changes are upgrading one’s discharge characterization from “less than honorable” to one more reflective of their service. Another includes allowing LGBT troops to update their “narrative reason for discharge.” McKean says for those dismissed under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” it would mean changing it from “homosexual act” to a more generic “secretarial authority.” And they can also try to replace their negative “re-entry code” with one that allows them to re-enlist.

Once servicemembers provide SLDN with the necessary paperwork to apply for these changes, the group will send the materials to the appropriate board for processing. So far, McKean says about a hundred applicants have utilized the new toolkit.

But McKean notes that changes to one’s paperwork are not guaranteed.

Researchers with the Center for American Progress’s ‘Half in Ten’ program focused on high poverty rates within the LGBT community in a recently-released report.

Jeff Krehely is the director of the Center’s LGBT research and communications project. He tells OutQ News that the findings will likely strike down the stereotype that gay Americans are more affluent than their heterosexual peers.

KREHELY: Educating the public, including LGBT people, about what the current demographic characteristics of our population is, but others like straight people, that’s going to have, I think, a very surprising impact on them.

‘Half and Ten’ found that among all members of the LGBT community, lesbians and transgender people suffer the most financially.

While 15 percent of gay men live in poverty, about 24 percent of lesbian and bi women between the ages of 18 to 44 are broke. That’s compared to 19 percent of straight women. The research also shows that once female couples reach the age of 65, they are TWICE as likely as married straight couples to be poor. ‘Half in Ten’ notes that because women still make less than men, DOUBLING that difference for a female couple raising children only makes matters worse.

Speaking of children, the report says that the kids of gay couples are TWICE as likely to live in poverty than those of married opposite-sex parents.

But perhaps the most startling figure included in the study is that as many as 64 percent of transgender Americans reported an annual income of less than $25,000 dollars due to high unemployment rates and homelessness.

Featuring stories from our national team of correspondents, our TWO-HOUR special event will also include in-depth conversations about the most important and most compelling news stories from the past year affecting our community.

Tune in to OutQ News Reports: ’2011-Year in Review’ on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, at 3pm ET/noon West, with encores Sunday, New Year’s Day, at noon and 7pm ET and Monday, January 2nd at 11am.

Matt Katz posted the card to him and his husband Aaron Lafrenz on his Facebook page on Sunday. Dated December 8th, it’s on White House paperstock embossed with the presidential seal, and signed–apparently by the President’s automated pen.

It says, in part, “Congratulations on this special occasion. Michelle and I hope it is blessed with love, laughter and happiness.” President Obama adds, “Your union marks the beginning of a lifelong partnership as you share in the joys of your life together.” The word “marriage” does not appear anywhere on the card. The President has said that he supports civil unions for same-sex couples, but that his views on gay marriage are “evolving.”

Katz tells the blog BuzzFeed, “I’m not sure why the letter got sent to us.” But he wonders whether any other couples have received one. On his Facebook page, Katz writes, “We can’t be the only ones, we are not cool at all.”

The White House, for its part, is being somewhat tight-lipped. Asked by OutQ News how Katz and Lafrenz came to be chosen for the honor, a spokesman emailed only, “The White House regularly sends congratulatory messages from the President to members of the public.”

But so far, no other gay couple has stepped forward to indicate a trend is emerging.

In early December, blogger Laurel Ramseyer noted on the progressive site Blue Mass Group that all of Warren’s opponents for U-S Senator from Massachusetts, including Republican Scott Brown, had said something on their website or in the media outlining their stance on LGBT issues.

Ramseyer called Warren a “superstar of consumer advocacy” whose polling numbers in some cases put her ahead of incumbent Senator Brown. Ramseyer wrote, “That Warren could become such a solid candidate in Massachusetts without first outlining her views on civil rights is disturbing.”

Almost immediately, Warren spokesman Kyle Sullivan wrote to Ramseyer to say that “from hearing Warren speak” he knew she supported a range of gay issues, which he listed. And he promised a more detailed and formal response soon.

Well, “soon” is now. In a 460-word blog post on Blue Mass Group itself, signed by the candidate herself, Warren says she supports marriage equality and seeks an end to the Defense of Marriage Act. She writes, “Our federal government should not be in the business of selecting which married couples it supports and which it treats with contempt.”

She supports trans-inclusive ENDA, the federal ban on anti-LGBT discrimination in the workplace; and she notes her own experience as an elementary school teacher in backing safe and supportive, bullying-free schools for gay kids, and those from LGBT families.

In a comment on Warren’s blog entry, Laurel Ramseyer suggests Warren post a summary of her LGBT positions on her campaign website and adds, “well done… Thank You, Elizabeth Warren.”

The Movement Advancement Project–or MAP–released its 2011 National LGBT Movement Report on Tuesday. It examined 40 organizations within the movement, which account for about 70 percent of the budgets of ALL gay advocacy groups.

MAP Executive Director Ineke Mushovic tells OutQ News that finances for LGBT groups leveled-off last year after having suffered a 25 percent drop in revenue the two years prior. She notes that this is due to increased fundraising, corporate giving and estate donations.

But the report also shows that the number of INDIVIDUAL donors is down 12 percent since 2010, with their TOTAL contributions dropping 14 percent. That’s considering less than THREE PERCENT of LGBT adults donate to organizations within the movement.

Mushovic says while she’s “very heartened” to see how well organizations are doing in the tough economic climate, she’s just “cautiously optimistic” about the future faced with a lack of resources.

MUSHOVIC: I think if we can start to understand what is causing that low percentage of giving, then we can start to address the problem. So that also makes me optimistic, just that we are on a path to try and uncover and then solve that issue.

Despite the loss in funds, combined revenues last year exceeded expenses by about $5 million, a stark contrast from the movement’s economic situation in 2009.

But MAP also found that the nation’s 10 largest ANTI-GAY groups spent about THREE TIMES more than the 40 LGBT organizations participating in the research.

A spokesperson for Exodus International tells OutQ News that the organization is “not going to do any interviews on the issue,” which was originally reported on by Ex-Gay Watch. The blog quotes un-named sources claiming that Exodus President Alan Chambers held a meeting last month to talk about possibly re-branding the group to become more “donor accessible” now that funds are reportedly tight. That seems to mean more moderate in its approach.

Ex-Gay Watch notes that aside from dropping more than a million dollars for its headquarters building three years ago, Exodus also burned through $200-thousand in its savings last year. In fact, on its own website, Exodus asks supporters to help the group “pay off the building as soon as possible so that the funds currently budgeted monthly for the loan commitment can go back into vital ministry programs.” Exodus even shows online visitors that such programs and conferences can altogether cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wayne Besen–founder of the ex-gay watchdog group Truth Wins Out–tells OutQ News that there has been some chatter about the economic meltdown of Exodus International for “quite some time.” But he says there may be a lot of “deep-pocketed individuals” willing to throw the group a “lifeline.”

BESEN: This is far from a done deal. I think that it’s positive, it shows that they’re having trouble with their message, and it shows that less people are buying into it. But I wouldn’t count them out yet–they’re down, but they’re certainly not out.

But Besen says that the “luster is off” the idea of ex-gay ministry as a whole, especially now that more of the movement’s former leaders have come out against it.

Signorile: “So it will be a place for me online, and where I am when I’m not on the show. So I don’t think I’m every really totally–now I REALLY won’t be ever really, totally unplugged.”

On his show Tuesday afternoon, the veteran activist, pundit and journalist said the beauty of the Huffington Post platform is that millions of people read it, and are likely to encounter things in the “Gay Voices” section because of the way they are linked from the site’s front page.

Signorile: “Gay voices is a place for LGBT people to come together on Huffington Post. But because it’s on Huffington Post, this larger network, just like us on here on OutQ on this larger network, so many other people can plug in and be inspired and educated and entertained.”

Signorile says he’ll be starting conversations, not dominating them, with blog entries and news stories that he writes himself, or leading debates that include a diversity of LGBT voices.

Andrea Jones tells OutQ News that her local driver’s license office refused to change her gender to female, claiming the applicant had NOT undergone a FULL sex change as required. Jones says she had presented them with both a letter from the Social Security Office and a doctor’s notice that said she no longer had testicles.

But the 32-year-old says officials wanted more proof that her sex reassignment procedure was complete and that she was no longer male. So Jones went outside and did what any man could normally do in public but women CANNOT–she took her top off.

JONES: One thing that I find interesting is, during the course of all this, they had every right to ask me to leave. But they didn’t have the right to tell me what to wear when they told me that I was male, which allowed me to behave in the fashion that I did.

Jones was arrested shortly after for indecent exposure, though her police report listed her as a male.

The Morristown-native spent 21 days in a men’s jail before finally posting bond last Friday. She said it was “not a very pleasant place,” adding that she suffered several instances of physical distress like frequent black-outs.

Jones–who has since been fired from her job–says she is now seeking assistance from local advocacy groups for her upcoming court date. She says she hopes her case will call attention to the “flaws in the way things are set up.”